TNAG-1174-FCO40-1476-Proposed-replacement-airport-for-Hong-Kong-at-Deep-Bay-or-Ch-1982 — Page 103

CONFIDENTIAL

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2. GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING

Deep Bay is situated at the northwest corner of Hong Kong territory

and is downstream of the hills over the New Territories in easterly winds.

There are several hills slightly higher than 400 m in China to its northeast and

two hills about 300 m high to its west. Fig. 1 shows the locations of a few

peaks in the vicinity of Deep Bay.

The hills over the New Territories are expected to have some barrier.

effects on winds from the east and southeast. It is likely that in a prevailing

easterly airstream, a certain extent of wind channelling occurs along the Shenzhen

(Shum Chun) River which is flanked by hills on either sides of the border. North-

erly winds from China are also likely to be deflected into a northeasterly airstream

into Deep Bay and down the Yuen Long-Tuen Mun valley due to the presence of hills

in the New Territories which are northeast-southwest oriented. Some of these

phenomena have been observed in a water tank experiment using a Hong Kong

territory model. (The experimental facilities are described in Ref. 2.)

Deep Bay is exposed to southwesterly winds. Because of the orientation

of the range of hills extending north-northeast from Castle Peak, westerly winds

are likely to be diverted into southwesterly winds in Deep Bay. This has also

been observed in the water tank experiment.

This will have

Deep Bay is a body of shallow water with an opening of about 7 km wide

facing the southwest. The configuration of the bay and its shallowness give rise

to tidal ranges higher than that measured in the Victoria Harbour.

considerable bearing on the civil engineering design. Furthermore, the construction

of an airport which will presumably fill up a significant portion of the bay could

result in drastic changes in tide levels. This will in turn affect the ecology

of the surrounding coastline.

CONFIDENTIAL